Ready for Proleague?

A new era is about to begin for the Proleague tomorrow. After long years of being the most prestigious BroodWar tournament which tested not only players but entire rosters and their coaches alike and after one travesty of a season called "Hybrid Proleague", KeSPA’s team league is looking forward to a fresh new start.

BroodWar is long in the past and it’s all StarCraft 2 from here on and so, to kick this all off, here’s how the teams faired in SC2 matches in the past season (hint: the worst performing team in SC2 won the championship and the best performing team never made the playoffs):

SC2 stats from Hybrid Proleague (not counting playoffs)

1. Woongjin Stars 38-19 (+19)
2. Samsung KHAN 36-29 (+7)
3. Team 8 32-27 (+5)
4. STX Soul 33-29 (+4)
5. SK Telecom T1 33-32 (+1)
6. KT Rolster 29-31 (-2)
7. CJ Entus 26-31 (-5)

At this point it’s good to note how those stats don’t mean shit nowadays as things are not the same as they were six months ago. Back then, we sat and watched how bad KeSPA players were at StarCraft 2, bar few exceptions. Today, a KeSPA player holds an OSL and WCS Asia title and another two – Flash and Bogus – made it to the top four of some of the most renowned SC2 tournaments on the planet, MLG and GSL.

In six months, KeSPA has evolved but with the arrival of a new pretender along comes the question that'll define the theme of the new season: “Has it evolved enough?”

WEEK ONE (December 8-9)



Take a breath, step back and look at the bomb that will (or at least should) blow up the Proleague viewership numbers sky high. For the first time in tournament’s history, a foreign brand is participating and what’s more, the players under it are the heavy favorites to go home with a trophy at the end of the season.

This, of course, would not be the case if we were talking about an all-foreign team. As famous as they are within the community, the likes of IDRA, HUK, THORZAIN, SHETH, TLO and even STEPHANO aren’t and probably never will be fit to survive the Proleague’s test due to its long, exhausting schedule schedule, their inexperience with it and Moon’s famous “Koreans own white dudes” axiom which always seems to ring true. Fortunately for the “Unholy Alliance”, they are backed with sturdy Korean line-up which has undergone not one or two harrowing tournament trials. Spearheaded by HERO and TAEJA who look almost unbeatable at the moment, the roster has also welcomed names like PUMA, ZENIO and JYP as well as Proleague veterans like JAEDONG and SEA. It's muscular, rock solid Korean body clothed in western-sewn fabric.

With all that in mind, multiple Proleague champions and home of “The Ultimate Weapon” KT Rolster are going out to likely get slaughtered. FLASH is being sent out as the player for the opening match but this is not Winners League and the BW bonjwa will have to step down after one game, regardless of if he wins or loses. Although EG-TL are not leading in with the heaviest of guns and might very well lose the first set, JYP, Thorzain, Jaedong and HuK should be enough to clean this up.

Flash is mighty and all powerful but even he can’t win games from the bench.

Prediction: EG-TL 4-1 KT Rolster


Of all the KeSPA teams, SKT has been evolving the fastest and on their soil are grown some of the most promising players on the scene. Expected, knowing how Boxer’s team has always had an eye for talent and the facilities to ascend said talent to unfair heights.

In the last Proleague, SKT had an atrocious start and they spent the first two rounds near the bottom of the table. They were still good at BroodWar, naturally, but once playing the old game was not enough anymore, they took quite a few tumbles and by round three their prospects of making the playoffs were grim.

Suddenly, all of this was no more. Carried by RAIN and FANTASY (and partly by Bisu and BeSt), SKT underwent a reincarnation, crushed round three and finished third as the Proleague came to an end. The rush with which SKT’s makeover was executed was mind-boggling.

Tomorrow, SKT go against STX Soul, the team which was the very definition of average in the previous Proleague. Fortunately for them, they too have grown wiser and stronger with time and today they are the home of GSL semi-finalist BOGUS and OSL semi-finalist and “killer of Flash” LAST – the heart of the terran line-up and the two most key figures for STX, indubitably.

Victory will surely be a tough achievement to accomplish for STX but it’s not completely out of reach. SKT are leading with BISU – someone who, to put it mildly, has not been having the results we’ve all been expecting – and are alternating between heavy hitters and wild cards. It is up to Dear and Trap to secure the early lead for STX which Last and Bogus can turn into a win, otherwise the finishing trio of Rain, Best and Fantasy will be Soul's death.

Prediction: SK Telecom T1 4-2 STX Soul


Here’s another interesting match-up: statistically the best SC2 team from the Hybrid league versus the regining champions. Both of those are booming titles, yet not ones that these two teams are likely to reclaim in the course of Proleague 12-13.

In the dark early days of KeSPA players learning StarCraft 2, Woongjin reached for glory and easily grabbed it, their roster lead by the promising SOULKEY, ZERO, SHY and LIGHT. Their prowess in SC2 was unmatched and helped them climb to first place in round one with a score of +15, a feat no other team came close to achieving. This tendency persisted throughout the next rounds and while their stats in BroodWar kept declining, they still won more SC2 Bo3’s than they lost.

Unlike Woongjin who relied on an entire squad of trained SC2 killers, however, CJ Entus’s success lay in two players who were often called to save the day: HERO[JOIN] and EFFORT. Throughout the last season, CJ’s archon came, saw and conquered on multiple occasions and were the main reason the team made it as far as it did. The synergy of the duo was uncanny and all-mowing and I am prone to believe it has retained its strength during the time we haven’t seen it in action.

If we choose to pin our faith into the data we have, this looks like an easy match to predict. Soulkey’s skill has seemingly plateaued but he’s still to remain the key pawn in Woongjin’s line-up plus, as we mentioned, he’s backed up by entire flotilla of players who know how to win at StarCraft 2. On the other side, there’s CJ Entus with its two assassins leading a roster which screams mediocrity and simply cannot be trusted to perform excellently. Woongjin have lined Flying, Soulkey, Shy and ZerO in a lethal string of power and from the looks of it, CJ are in for their first loss.

Prediction: Woongjin Stars 4-2 CJ Entus


What do you do when you lose your only good player?

This is a question to which I believe Team 8 have not and will not find the answer. Compared to the other seven teams, their roster is shallow, most of their players haven’t showcased even a tidbit of promise in any league, all their hope lies in BABY and they will have to fight to find sponsors as much as they battle in the booth. This will not be a good tournament for Team 8 unless they stumble onto some divine miracle as we know they ain't getting JAEDONG back for another year.

That being said, Samsung KHAN are marching to their opening victory. Their roster is led by REALITY and RORO who are backed up by the ever improving STORK and JANGBI as the representatives of the protoss line-up. KHAN hail in as the winners of the group rounds and the overall runner-ups of the previous season and have all the reasons to feel confident about the coming year.

Prediction: Samsung KHAN 4-0 Team 8

Photo sources: thedz_, Daily eSports, Alex Gao, WellPlayed